Good Girls Don't Die
by HalloweenCake
Summary: Lost Boys fic. Occurs before events of the movie. Focusing on Star, how she ended up with the Lost Boys, and things that happened in between encountering them for the first time and when we first see her in the movie.
1. Ocean

Star sat on the pier, dangling her bare feet above the water. Her sandals sat next to her, and her mom's hat lay forlorn and unwanted next to them on the boards of the pier. Her mother had insisted she wear the huge-brimmed blue sun hat when she left the house, but today Star didn't feel like an overweight gardener in a floral-pattern cotton dress, so she was not going to wear the headgear of one. Today she felt like what she was - a Star! Bright, wise, powerful and free to shine as hard and as long as she could. She stared down into the undulating water below her, the white-hot light of the sun causing sparkles like supernovas to burst along the tops of waves. Her wandering mind asked her what would happen if she fell in - or jumped in? She dared herself to do it and then laughed quietly at her own mindless silliness.

Her smile gave way to a look of shock as her eyes focused on something bobbing in the water and she realized with horror that it was a child's head! In the second it took to process this information, the head sank. Star didn't have the leisure time to think. She was a strong swimmer and had been a lifeguard for two years. She slipped off her heavy tiered and beaded skirt and her denim vest. In panties and t-shirt she edged off the end of the pier, keeping her eyes on the place where the child had gone down. Swimming with her head above water, Star was at the spot in less than a minute.

She filled her lungs with a deep breath and dove straight downwards. Her eyes were open but she couldn't see much, for a lot of sand had been churned up here. That meant the water wasn't extremely deep, but Star knew a small person who didn't know how to swim could drown in much less water than this. She squinted and felt all around desperately. What was really only a few seconds underwater could seem like ten minutes as panicked thoughts raced through your brain. Star had only had to save one victim in all her time as a lifeguard, and that had been in familiar water. For all she knew about this part of the ocean, a riptide could have snatched the kid several feet away from where she was blindly searching for it. She let a few bubbles out. Her lungs were straining as she pushed herself to swim further down. She had to close her eyes now. All she could see was swirling brown billows of sand in the dark green shadows of the water. She was nearing the bottom. It was like trying to drive in pea-soup fog. In fact, she thought with a hint of irony, this was a hell of a lot more like pea soup than fog could ever be. Unable to hold her breath any longer, the last of her air escaped in big, wobbly bubbles, and Star almost began to cry. Despair and an icy grip of horror paralyzed her as the thoughts quickly dawned on her: I failed him. The kid died, because I couldn't save him.

The thoughts that froze Star, body and soul, prevented her from doing what any swimmer would instinctively do when the last of their air supply had been forced from their lungs - kick and claw and rocket to the surface. In that moment, darkness and hopelessness confused the will to live. And in that moment, she blinked her eyes open and saw a small, brown hand wafting through the impenetrable clouds of sand in front of her. Star reacted instantly. Her hands darted out to grasp the tiny wrist. Her feet braced against the ocean bottom and her legs bent and pushed mightily. Star soared through the water, kicking like a rocket boost, towing the child's body. He wasn't unconscious yet. He latched onto her like a barnacle as soon as she touched him.

The two shot out of the water into the fresh, warm summer air. Star gasped, a huge breath. The little boy coughed and coughed, his face turning dark red as he began to sob with panic. Star steeled herself for the most difficult part of any rescue, especially a rescue lacking a flotation device. She regretted now not having taken the time to find one before going in after him. That was the number one safety rule every lifeguard gets pounded into her skull. The child was very small, but he was scared and going into shock. If he struggled, she might lose him beneath the waves again, or he might drag her down with him, despite how small he was. She tried to calm him by talking to him, telling him everything was ok, but she was too upset herself. Her voice was too tense to calm anyone down. Holding onto only the boy's arm, she distanced his body from hers in the water to evade his thrashing and she began to kick for shore.


	2. Shore

Three people had gathered at the water's edge. The spot was pretty secluded, but this crowd-in-name-only had seen what happened. As Star used the bulk of her adrenaline rush to reach the beach, one of them, an older man, waded out into the shallows towards her. Star let a wave bring her and the child the rest of the way in, and the man took the kid into his arms while one of his companions, a woman, rushed forward to make sure Star was all right.

"Wrap him in blankets!" Star blurted confusedly. All she cared about was that the boy got proper first aid. "Treat for shock," she quoted her first aid training verbatim, which, at this point, was all she could manage. The old man was way ahead of her; had already wrapped two beach towels and a windbreaker around the kid. The man had a tattoo on his arm that was too faded to see clearly but was definitely military in nature. It seemed he knew what he was doing. He told the little boy "breathe," and succeeded in calming him down. "We need to get him to a hospital as soon as possible."

The third onlooker, a jogger, ran off to get her car which was parked up the hill. She could drive the boy to the hospital. "Is he yours?" the man asked Star. Star shivered, and the other woman took off her jacket and snugged it around Star's shoulders as Star answered, "no, I don't know him. I was sitting on the pier and suddenly noticed him. I didn't see where he came from. Maybe he fell from a boat."

The woman knelt down in front of the boy. "Where are your parents, sweetie? Are they in a boat? Or are they on the beach somewhere?"

The boy shook his head and pointed up at the nearby cliff.

"They're up there?" the woman asked, peering up at the clifftop. The boy hesitated briefly, then nodded once.

Star stared at the boy. "You fell from the cliff top?" she asked, dismayed.

The boy looked up at her silently. He seemed dazed, now that he was calmer. At last he roused himself and shook his head carefully. He pointed towards the cliffside again. Clearly he was so upset by his near-drowning that he was going to continue to refuse to speak.

The jogger's car pulled up, having nosed down the hill and into the grassy area behind the beach. The old man picked up the boy and bundled him into the car. "We've got to get him to a doctor right away." Star agreed. Medical attention was paramount after a near-drowning, as lung damage was a serious possibility. The woman said, "take him. We'll search the cliffside to find his parents." To Star she said, "Come on, I know of a small pathway that goes right up the cliff face. Maybe his family or whoever he was with decided to explore it and didn't notice he fell off."

Star began to follow her. "My name is Star, by the way."

"Norma," the woman introduced herself.

"Is it safe for us to go up there?" Star asked.

"No," Norma said frankly. "But that doesn't stop people from going there. We'll just have to be extra cautious and try to find these people quickly."

The beach narrowed to a thin line of stepping stones near the base of the cliffside. Star and Norma picked their way carefully around to the front of the cliff. Looking straight up, Star could just see a black cave entrance, and some iffy steps carved into the stone leading down to it from above. "Maybe I was wrong," Norma muttered. "You can't get up there from here. I guess the only way in is down from the top of the cliff." She decided to try to get the attention of whoever might be up there. "Heloooo?" she shouted. Her voice echoed slightly, probably from inside the cave. No one appeared at the top of the cliff or at the entrance halfway up the side.

Star trudged further along the bottom of the cliff face, hoping she could get a better view of the cave entrance. Instead, she stumbled across an opening in the stone, with steps leading up inside the cliff. "Hey, over here." She beckoned and Norma joined her. "I thought I'd heard there was a way up," Norma said, sounding pleased. Her forehead creased a moment later, however. "Doesn't look very safe. Doesn't smell right, either." She sniffed a sour smell and screwed up her face.

Suddenly, a weak sound drifted to their ears, causing both women to pause in alarm. "He-e-elp..." It was distant and muffled, but they couldn't deny it was a cry for help, and clearly coming from up the stairs.


	3. Cave

**Author's note: **_I'm introducing an OC in this chapter: Gwen the vampire, a female member of the Lost Boys. Hope nobody minds the liberty I'm taking!_

Star and Norma looked at each other, then Star rushed through the opening and up the steps, her companion right behind her. "Hello! We're here to help. Where are you?" Star called breathlessly.

From the darkness of the passageway in front of her, a figure lunged and wrapped its arms around Star. She screamed, and yelled, "Run!" to Norma, but another large, dark figure dropped from above the woman. Star struggled with her assailant, kicking and clawing maniacally. She twisted hard in his bear-hug grip and slipped out of it, dropping to hands and knees. Star scuttled down the steps towards the other unknown attacker and his victim. Grabbing the man's ankle, Star yanked with all her might. This move failed to knock him over, but it threw him off balance and the screaming, struggling Norma broke free and ran as fast as she could down the steps.

"Go! Go!" Star shrieked at her, unnecessarily. Fight-or-flight had kicked in and Norma was in a blind panic. Star's assailant had recovered and grabbed her by the legs. Norma barrelled through the doorway into bright daylight, and her pursuer stopped cold, arms flying out to catch the sides of the tunnel. Perhaps it was Star's terror making her see things, but his black silhouette against the rough square of daylight appeared monstrous, with sharp claws and a demon-masklike facial structure. He turned and advanced on Star, who was struggling only feebly against the one who had her by the ankles. She was exhausted. Breathing hard, she looked up at the second man who was bending down to grab her wrists.

"Damn it, Paul," the one at her ankles said. Star was bewildered to hear it was a woman's voice. "How the hell do you lose an old lady?"

The two hoisted Star began to carry her like a deer, a hunter's kill, between them. Star stared petrified up into the one called Paul's face. It wasn't as horrible as she had imagined at first, but there was a cruel, animalic quality to it.

"It's this one," Paul said defensively. "She's feisty." He laughed mirthlessly. Star lifted her head and strained to see the one in front, the woman, who had overpowered her. She had short, spiky hair and wore a tank top. In the near total-darkness of the cave, Star could tell little else about her.

"What do you want?" Star asked.

They ignored her, but the woman turned and replied to Paul's defensive rejoinder. "I took care of her myself, didn't I?" She smirked. With that, she put her arm around Star's waist and flipped her over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "If you don't work, Paul, you don't eat."

A torch flared to life a couple feet from Star's face, smacking her now darkness-adjusted eyes with abrupt, white pain. Paul had lit it and was carrying it to light their way through the passage. They emerged into a chamber draped with veils and curtains. "Welcome home, sweet-pea," the woman who carried her murmured. She slung Star off her shoulder and tossed her on a pile of mattresses with the same motion someone might use to throw their jacket off after arriving home.

"Gwen!" a rough, annoyed voice echoed through the chamber.

The woman bit her lip with a mischievous gleam in her eye and without turning around said sweetly, "yes, David?"


	4. This Better Be Good

"What is this? What the hell is going on around here?" A man with a platinum blonde mullet and sleepy eyes appeared on a balcony overlooking the room.

A fourth voice sheepishly chimed in, "I can explain, David." Star looked. It was another young man, with longer hair than any of the others and a baby face, holding up his hand as if answering a question in class at school. He spread his hands and shrugged. "Me and Paul couldn't sleep. We got hungry. So..."

"We threw the kid into the ocean," Paul said, resting the crook of his arm on Marco's shoulder.

David wrinkled his brow momentarily, then smiled a wolfish grin and began to saunter down the broken staircase from the balcony to the floor of the cavern. "That's solid planning, guys. The first step is perfectly logical. What, pray tell, did this accomplish?" David's eyes flicked to Star. She could see from the look in his eyes that he knew this story was gonna be good, and he couldn't wait to hear it.

"Hey!" Star cut in. "You better let me go."

They ignored her.

"The kid almost drowned!" Paul roared with laughter. "But we got this chick's attention, so our plan worked. She ripped off her clothes and dove in the water!"

Marco snickered.

Gwen sat down next to Star on the mattress. Star leaned away from her, but Gwen deftly took both of Star's hands in her own before Star could recoil. She began wrapping the end of a long, gauzy scarf around Star's hands and wrists, effectively binding them together. Gwen didn't pay any attention to Star's attempts to pull free; her unsettling strength enabled her to keep a viselike grip with one hand while the other hand swiftly wrapped the scarf around and around. Then she jerked Star by the arms closer to the broken bedpost and continued wrapping the scarf around the post.

"You people are really stupid," Star hissed at them. "There are people who know I'm up here. They _saw_ you attack me!" Saying it gave her the confidence to put on a brave smile and say condescendingly, "The police are going to be here before you're done laughing like idiots."

David spun and looked stormily at Gwen. "What's that?" he said. "Someone saw this and you let them escape?"

Gwen squirmed, her glance sliding sideways guiltily. "Well, yeah... there was this other broad, an old grandma... and, and Paul couldn't seem to handle her."

"Hey!" Paul said petulently, an excuse on the tip of his tongue.

"Shut up, Paul!" David shouted. He ran his hand over the top of his head and paced in a circle. "You guys really screwed up this time," he said, sounding stressed. "Okay. Okay, here's what we'll do. We have to let her go -" He moved towards Star and flicked out a switchblade - "And maybe she won't press charges. No harm done, right?" He slipped the switchblade under the tight wrappings of the scarf. He cut, but not through the scarf.

"Ouch!" Star squealed. The cut on her wrist was deep and a bright red stain expanded effusively across the scarf.

David threw back his head and laughed uproariously. Gwen scrunched her eyes shut, giggling, and she fell over on her side and rolled around on the bed, cackling with unbridled mirth.

"The cops never come here, Star," David said, getting in her face. He opened the long jacket he was wearing and showed her his extensive collection of police badges. Star stared at them open-mouthed. _How did he know my name?_ she thought with further horror. David licked her blood off the blade of his knife. "The long arm of the law can only stand getting its hand bit off so many times," He added, closing his jacket with a flick of his wrist.

Gwen put her arm around Star's shoulder and kissed her cheek. "We got you all to ourselves, honey."

"What's going on?" a low voice asked.

David looked up. "Aw, Dwayne, did these jerks wake you up?"

The dark-haired Dwayne, rubbing sleep from his eyes, nodded slightly.

"Those two dumbasses couldn't sleep so they woke me up and asked me to make 'em a meal." Gwen snorted. "Like I'm their mommy or something. But hey, nothing like a midnight snack, so we thought up a gormless plan and got a new pet out of it." She rubbed Star's head enthusiastically.


	5. Blood

David stretched out on another nearby mattress and said, "you guys do realize that now we have to go get Laddie back tonight, right?"

"Oh," Paul said, his face falling. "He's at the hospital, I think."

Marco shrugged. "That's cool."

David sighed. "No, it's not cool." His eyes were clear and menacingly cold as he looked Marco in the face. "I don't like it when some asshole comes along and tosses my property into the sea. Never touch that kid again, you hear me?"

Marco, unable to hold eye contact, lowered his head and mumbled, "yeah...I -"

"What?" David snapped loudly.

"I hear you, David," Marco said quickly.

"And by the way, the girl's mine, too."

"What?" "Aww, come on! I'm _hungry_!" "Not fair!" The chorus of protests from all three was cut off by a simple wave of David's hand. He levered to his feet. "I'm going back to bed," he said, and that ended the discussion. He bent down and whispered something to Gwen as he passed the mattress on the way to the balcony stairs. Ascending to his room, he ordered, "Everybody go back to bed. I want you rested before you sneak into the hospital and steal the Laddie back tonight."

The other three boys left. Gwen raised her hands and slapped her knees, standing up . She stalked over to a huge, broken, antique vanity table. Languidly, reverently, she wrapped her fingers around the neck of what looked like an ornate wine bottle. She turned her head slowly towards Star and licked her lips. Strolling back, uncorking the bottle, she said, "Get ready." Star shrank back and swallowed nervously. Something in Gwen's smirking demeanor made her wonder if what happened next was going to be as horrible as she was beginning to imagine it would be. Gwen held out the bottle. "Here, drink," she said. She put the mouth of the bottle to Star's lips since her hands were still bound to the bedstead. Gwen worked the bottle in between Star's resisting pursed lips, and tilted it to pour the liquid down her throat. Star shook her head violently away before any of it passed her lips, and some of the red fluid spilled, spattering crimson droplets on the curtains, the mattress, Star's shirt and Gwen's shirt.

Gwen bared her teeth, grabbed Star by the hair, forcing her head back, and forced the bottleneck into her mouth. The drink wasn't wine - it tasted disgusting! Star spluttered and spit most of it out in a fountain that spangled Gwen's face with thick, dripping bloodspatter.

'You c***!" Gwen growled. She relocated her hand from pulling Star's hair to covering her mouth and nose, pressing and holding hard to make sure Star swallowed.

Star was shaking. Her eyelashes flexed, her dark eyes flashing; they were like movie projectors, a panoply of emotions flickering and chasing across them frame-by-frame. The blood slid down Star's throat hot and sludgy. She didn't fully understand what was happening, but it was uncomfortable, awful, and frightening. A large, bright tear escaped from Star's eye and rolled over her cheekbone only to encounter the dam formed by Gwen's hand.

Gwen stepped back, swiping her arm across her face as if she were wiping away sweat. The splotches of blood smeared together in a swathe of warpaint around her eye. She took a swig from the bottle, gazing at Star with hooded eyes. She gritted her teeth as she swallowed, then silently corked and returned the bottle to the table.

She left and Star, all alone and exhausted from the stress she had endured, eventually lay down on her stomach and fell asleep.


	6. The Laddie

Star awoke to the sound of hooting laughter and yelps. She sat up and stared as the four boys and Gwen flew over her head and out through the upper tunnel (not the one she had come into from the bottom of the cliff). Numbed by the impossibility of what she was witnessing, thoughts didn't connect very well, but her first semi-clear idea was that she had been drugged and was hallucinating. Her next idea, a little clearer, was that she had to escape while they were gone. Star twisted her arms and hands desperately, trying to work them out of Gwen's tangle of tightly wrapped scarf. She tore into the scarf's hem with her teeth, and it slowly began to weaken and unravel.

The process was much too slow, however. In less than an hour, David returned. Star had only succeeded in biting away an inch or so of the yards of fabric holding her to the broken bedstead. David flew into the cavern, a small bundle in his arms. He dropped it on the mattress next to her, and it squirmed and sat up. It was the little boy she'd rescued, wearing a hospital gown. David landed with a stomp on both of his huge, black boots. He cut through her bonds with one swipe of his knife. "You can babysit the kid," he said. "Oh, and here, I found this for you." He held out her skirt. She snatched it, turned away, and put it on quickly. She turned back to him with brazen eyes. "What are you?" she asked. "What was that drug Gwen gave me?" It was giving her sharp pains in her stomach. "Are you going to... to probe me? Are you aliens?" Star grimaced. The drug was confusing her. The flying wasn't real. They were just violent, kidnapping gangbangers.

David laughed.

"I want to go home," Star demanded.

"What home?" David asked, waving one arm. "I know who are, Star. I've seen you before. You're a runaway, a guttersnipe, a beach-dweller. You're just another lost kid in the city of lost kids. I've watched you. How do you think I knew you wear those godawful sparkly skirts?"

Star looked down at the skirt she was wearing.

"I got that one at a shop. Did you think I went after the one you left on the pier? It blew away in the wind hours ago, Star. It fell in the ocean, and I don't like salt and I don't like water."

Star smoothed the skirt, looked at Laddie cowering on the bed, and whirled on David again. "You're a monster!" She shouted. "Let us go!"

David stepped forward till his nose was half an inch from her nose. "Yes, a monster. We're all monsters here! We're vampires, Star. Those three would have drank you dry and dumped you in a hole. I saved your life."

Star breathed through her mouth so she wouldn't have to smell his bad breath. She pushed on his chest and snarled, "You ruined my life! I don't want to be here." She lowered her voice to a near-whisper. "You've done something to me, I can tell. This is really illegal and dangerous, kidnapping and drugging us. Let me and Laddie go."

David stepped back. "I can't do that. I'm going out. Watch the kid, and, uh... don't worry about him not talking to you. He hasn't talked since the day we got him." With that, David shot into the air like a bird with invisible wings.

Star was frustrated, and most of her fear had been replaced with a righteous anger. How dare they treat a little boy like this? How dare they keep her captive and laugh at her? She turned to Laddie. He was crying. Her face melted from an indignant mask of frustration into a soft, motherly look of concern. "Oh, honey," she said and sat down and pulled him into her arms. "It's gonna be all right," she said, stroking his long hair back from his forehead.

"I'm sorry," he said, his voice so small she almost couldn't hear it.

"What?" she said, leaning forward so she could see his face. She smiled encouragingly at him. "I thought you didn't talk."

Laddie sniffled and rubbed his face. "I don't talk to them. They use me to lure people in. Just like they used my... my... my mom to catch meee..." His words mounted into sobs, and he cried and cried. Star held him and rocked him. She suspected this was the first time the boy had really cried since his traumatic experience began. He had been through so much. When his torrential sobs had wound down to sniffs and hiccups, Laddie said again, "I'm sorry. It's my fault they got you."

"No, no," Star soothed him. "It's all right." She patted his head and resumed rocking him as she hugged him tight.


	7. Don't Know What to Believe

"Laddie, we're getting out of here," Star said determinedly. She stood him up and wiped all the tears off his face. "Follow me," she said, smiling bravely at him. She pulled him swiftly along to the tunnel that led down to the sea. They were only a few feet in when they hit a dead end. Tons of rock and dirt had filled the tunnel.

_Great_, Star thought. She wondered how David had collapsed the tunnel. She looked up, deciding to jump to reach the rocks at the top of the pile, hoping she would pull them away and find that the blockage was merely a foot thick or less. She underestimated her strength. Her jump launched her to the ceiling where she clung on like a bug - or a bat. She sucked in her breath in surprise. "Okay..." she exhaled. Star edged across the ceiling and climbed down one foot at a time onto the wall of stones. She selected one that was wedged against the ceiling and stuck out at an angle she could grip. Pulling with her new-found half-vampire strength, she worked it out of its position. As soon as it popped free, thick mud and more stones immediately pushed into its place. Star pursed her lips and dug them out. Seawater oozed through the gap until another, larger rock clacked into place to close the gap.

Star dropped to the ground. "Of course!" she said sharply. "Tide's in." The next words she thought were not ones she would allow herself to say out loud in front of a young kid. She slapped the caved-in rocks in frustration, then sighed and hung her head. "Well played, David," she voiced her thoughts. "Collapse the tunnel and for extra insurance leave me unguarded only when it's underwater. Well, there are other ways out..." She looked thoughtfully at Laddie. "How could I jump all the way to the ceiling?" she asked. Laddie shrugged uncomfortably. "David wasn't lying to you," he said. "We really are vampires now. The blood they feed you is vampire blood. It makes you half-vampire."

Star raised her eyebrows, shook her head and paced in a circle. "No, that can't be real," she almost laughed, but it was more a sound of desperation than mirth. "They are giving you a drug; it can mess up your mind, make you see things."

Laddie shook his head vehemently, his long hair swishing around his small, solemn face. "I know what drugs are," he said, somewhat offended. "The vampire blood is real. They give it to you once, and it turns you, gives you vampire powers but only sometimes. Sometimes you feel real sick and real tired. If it was drugs, they'd have to keep giving it to you or it would stop working. They only give you the blood once, you'll see, and it lasts forever."

Star looked at her feet. Her muscles were practically thrumming with energy. She felt powerful. "I don't understand it..." she said slowly. "Or... believe it. But... I feel like I can get us out. I feel like we're free already, Laddie, like birds." Star's eyes sparkled. She was deciding to fly, and deciding that her own doubts, which had plagued her all evening, were not going to keep her down. A new instinctual certainty had settled into her bones to guide her.

She picked up Laddie and carried him through the tunnel, the main cavern, and through another tunnel that led up to the front of the cliff face and the cave's mouth. Star leaned out into the moonlight, watching the white, frothing waves ascend and relapse at the foot of the cliff. It was a long way down if they fell - if Star's tennuous ability to fly failed her - but Laddie had survived that drop once already today.

Star tightened her hold on Laddie. He curled into a ball in her arms and buried his face in her shoulder. Star took a deep breath, held it, and bent her knees preparing to spring mightily into empty space a hundred feet above the water.


	8. Hunger

Almost a mile away, sitting on a beach picking gore out of his teeth, Dwayne casually fulfilled his turn at sentry duty. His glowing, red-rimmed eyes could see farther at night than a peregrine falcon could see by day. David always said of new half-vamps who escaped: "Bring them back, and punish them however you like. The more creative, the better." Dwayne watched impassively as Star stood preparing to make the leap from halfway up the cliffside. Dwayne muttered to himself "The order stands," and smiled slowly, relishing the images the word "creative" suggested to him. He watched, and waited.

Dwayne knew that Paul would have liked it if Star had escaped on his watch. Paul owed her revenge for schooling his ass and making him look ridiculous in front of Gwen. Gwen could tease mercilessly. In fact, she did everything mercilessly. She, too, would be disappointed she missed the chance to mete out cruel and unusual punishment on someone - especially a female - for trying to leave. But it wasn't Paul's turn, and Gwen would have to deal with the sting of a missed opportunity. Dwayne squinted at the cave entrance. Now where did she go?

Star closed her eyes and psyched herself up. She was going to jump, not think about it, just do it. Suddenly a stabbing pain erupted in her core. She cried out and dropped Laddie on the dusty floor of the tunnel entrance. More pangs racked her body and she cried again, dropping hard to the ground, rolling onto her side, clutching her abdomen.

Laddie crawled over to her and put his hand on her forehead. He left it there till her groans subsided and she could move again without screaming and think about something besides the pervasive pain. She lay sprawled, coated with cold sweat, too exhausted to do anything but try to breathe.

"It's ok," Laddie said sadly. "Even if we had escaped, we'd have to come back.. They're bad people, but they're the only ones who know what it feels like to be this hungry."

Star's eyes fell closed, but she forced them open. "No," she growled. Fires ignited in her eyes and she stood, slowly and painfully, but with grim determination. "We're getting out," she insisted. "Ugh, this is crazy. They definitely gave me a drug. It's making me sick and it's messed with my head. I almost threw us into the ocean. I can't fly," she said with disgust. "But I can climb! I can climb." She said again, "we're getting out."

Leaning slightly on Laddie's shoulder, Star limped into the cave and to the bottom of the staircase that led to the balcony David had come from earlier. Star had no way of knowing there was another exit that way, but a hunch told her there was a connecting tunnel that led up to the top of the cliff. Her hunch was soon confirmed. Star and Laddie crawled through bones and blood and dust in a tunnel that led past what smelled like and appeared to be vampire sleeping quarters. The tunnel led to a small opening at the top of the cliff. Star wriggled out of the hole and lifted Laddie out. Star did not waste much time wondering how she had been so certain this exit was here, because she was already concentrating her new psychic ability on another certainty: the boys were coming.

"We have to run now, Laddie," she said, taking his hand firmly. They ran. They ran like they were part of the wind, like the sound of the sea was the sound of invisible wings and the ground coudln't hold them back. Then a distant growl grew into a rumble of engines, and they ran like foxes with dogs yelping at their heals.

Laddie's short legs were growing tired, and just as he was about to surrender, Star spun and snatched him up and continued to whirl full-circle, swinging him into her arms and still running full tilt. Just running. But the motorcycles caught up easily and Star was surrounded. She glared at the leering vampires, and, like any cornered animal, her gaze was a death-glare, her eyes red with the bloodlust that flared in a fight-or-flight situation in which the or-flight part was not an option.


	9. Fight

Paul swung his leg over his bike and stepped forward to drag Laddie away from Star. She stepped protectively in front of Laddie and hissed at Paul. "Not gonna happen, jerk!" He stepped up to Star and grinned smugly in her face as he reached around her to grab Laddie's arm.

Before anyone knew what had happened, she tackled Paul to the ground and punched his face hard five times. He dug his sharp nails into her neck and tried to throw her off so he could get up, but she used his aggression as momentum and stood up as he pushed her, dragging him with her. She grabbed his arms and with a quick twist of her shoulders, threw him down again. She stomped on his ribs, but only once before Marco grabbed her from behind and lifted her and bodily threw her to David. David was ready to catch her, but he wasn't ready for her spitting in his eyes and punching him in the throat. He dropped her, holding onto her hair and shaking her like a rag. As he swung Star roughly around, Gwen kicked her hard in the stomach, winding her.

Dwayne had Laddie. He held the boy in a tight bear-hug, and whispered something in his ear. A look of terror came into Laddie's eyes. "Laddie!" Star called out to him. Trying to get away from them and get to Laddie, Star flailed her arms like clawed pinwheels, scratching David's and Gwen's eyes at once. Simultaneously, she kicked her legs so hard that she launched herself into the air as if she were swimming through the sky. David clawed back, tearing her shirt and leaving four deep, bleeding gashes in her side. Gwen jumped and latched onto Star's ear with her teeth. With a jerk of her head, Gwen ripped Star's ear off. Star screamed, more in anger than pain, and flipped over gracefully in the air, pushing off of David as she slipped free from his grip and plowing towards Gwen. Her fists connected with Gwen's face so hard that the vampire girl's skull collapsed inward. Still alive, Gwen spit out a mouthful of congealed blood and shattered teeth. The bones from her nose were sticking out of her left eye.

David recovered quickly from being launched backwards by the force of Star using him as a springboard. He, Marco and Paul jumped up and grabbed Star, pulling her down to the ground and putting all their weight on her. She bucked mightily, nearly managing to throw them off. She bit and pinched and clawed. "Stop struggling!" David commanded her. "Dwayne," he barked and jerked his head to summon Dwayne over. Star finally went still when Dwayne stepped forward, lit a match, jerked Laddie's arm out straight and held the flame just under the palm of the little boy's hand. Laddie squeezed his eyes shut from the pain.

"Let him go!" Star shouted hoarsely.

"We're letting you up, Star," David said smoothly. "If you try anything, Dwayne will burn the kid to ash."

Star stood, Marco and Paul holding one of her elbows each. Gwen marched up to her and hit her in the jaw, dislocating it. Gwen's face was still smashed and bloody, but it was already beginning to knit itself back together. David nodded to her and said quietly, "Enough." Gwen glared one-eyed at Star but stepped back in deference to David's leadership. The sharp, roughly carved end of a wooden stake suddenly erupted through her chest from behind. Gwen screamed a death-scream so horrible and unearthly, the night went darker as the moon disappeared, the trees stopped moving as if frozen in terror, even though a strong wind was blowing in off the ocean, and Star and the vampires all clapped their hands to their ears. Gwen exploded into faintly luminous dust that floated outwards like a burst of butterflies and confetti, but her scream went on for several minutes even after the dust dissipated.

In the first few seconds after Gwen was staked by person or persons unknown, Marco and Paul released their grasp on Star's arms. Dwayne had dropped Laddie and the match with which he'd been torturing him. Star bolted forward. "Run!" she tried to shout at him, but her dislocated jaw was making communicating difficult. Star scooped Laddie up and ran with him. Her only thought was to get him away from the vampires; to hide him from them and keep him safe.

As she scanned the dark landscape for a place to hide him, she saw a car, and from behind it, a woman running, crouched over. She recognized the woman instantly. It was Norma, the woman she and Laddie had met on the beach that morning. Norma wore black clothes, a black stocking cap and had grease paint on her face. She carried two stakes, one with a silver-coated point, the other with intricate crosses carved all over it.

"Norma!" Star whisper-shouted. It came out more like "Noom-ugh". Norma spun and spotted her.

"Star?" the woman said, approaching cautiously. "Have you killed?" she asked bluntly.

"Whaht?" Star said, her jaw beginning to heal.

"You're turned for sure," Norma said, sweeping Star up and down with her eyes. "But have you killed? Fed?"

Star wrinkled her nose and shook her head. "Of couwse not."

Norma lowered the silver tip of her stake a half inch, and breathed a small sigh of relief. "Okay. Put the child in the car. Quickly. Then help us, if you want to get your normal life back." Norma was already hurrying to join the fight with the vampires as she said this over her shoulder. Star could see two men fighting David, Marco, Paul and Dwayne. One was the elderly, ex-military man who had been at the beach with Norma when Star had rescued Laddie from drowning. The other Star did not recognize. She tucked Laddie into the car and flew to join the fray.


	10. Funeral

The two men stood back-to-back, circling and stabbing viciously with their stakes. Outnumbered two-to-one, at least they had the element of surprise and the confusing cover of Gwen's preternatural screaming. Norma ran to help them, but Star streaked past, her half-vampire strength still blazing inside her like a fire made of mindless rage and pure energy.

The younger man had Marco by the arm and was about to run him through when David flew down in a steep dive and grabbed the man by the head, intending to snap his neck. The older hunter, although occupied with fending off both Paul and Dwayne, swung what looked like a cavalry sword circa the Civil War in a wide arc above his head, slashing a long red cut across David's cheek. This would hardly have slowed David down, but at that moment, Star launched herself into the air and barreled into David. They crashed, rolling and scouring a scrape in the ground on impact.

Norma attacked Paul from behind, lodging her silver-tipped stake in his back. His instincts had warned him, however, and he shifted enough to throw off her aim. The stake harmlessly missed his heart. "Hey! My runaway snack!" he exclaimed delightedly as he pulled the stake out from between his lower ribs. The silver burned a little, causing his wound to steam as it closed. "You came back," Paul said and weilded the stake by the wrong end like a club. Norma ducked and rolled as he brought it down hard.

The old man was struggling to keep up with Dwayne, who toyed with him sadistically, jumping back and forth and all around with supernatural speed. He pinched the old man's nose, chuckled cruelly, and leaped into the air to hover before the vampire hunter could swing his stake. The old man stumbled forward, and Dwayne landed behind him, kicking him in the backside. The man caught himself with one hand as he stumbled and, with surprising agility for an old guy, cartwheeled back onto his feet and landed a kick on Dwayne's chin. It didn't hurt the dark-haired vampire, but it was a victory just to see that small, smug smile wiped off his face and replaced with a flash of embarrassing surprise.

Marco had the other man on the ground. Star was on top of David, hands around his neck, throttling him and pounding his head into the ground. Star looked up when Norma screamed, "NOOOO!" Marco had managed to kill the younger male vampire hunter. Norma had Paul by the hair, but she completely forgot him and ran to the dead man's side. She kicked Marco in the face as he stooped to drink the blood that streamed from the man's ripped-open throat. "Gilbert!" Norma shouted into the corpse's face. "Gilbert NO!" she cupped his face in one hand as she fumbled for his wrist with the other, as if she wanted to check his pulse. Marco loomed over her, but the old man, retreating from his battle with Dwayne, slammed his shoulder into Marco, knocking him over the way a cop breaks down a door. He hooked his arm under Norma's, yelled into her face that they had to get out of there, and dragged her away from Gilbert's body. She fought him at first, but he slapped her and pointed to the vampires.

Marco, Dwayne and Paul lunged towards the two hunters. David had taken advantage of Star's distraction to get the upper hand in their struggle, and he had her face-down on the ground with her arm twisted behind her back. He was pulling her hair so hard, it was coming out at the roots. Blood streamed from her scalp down her face and neck. She watched the hunters, her best hope for defeating the vampires and escaping this nightmare, turn tail and run. White-hot anger seared through her from head to foot. She screamed in frustration and bucked David off her with enormous force, launching him into the air. She leapt up and, grabbing his leg, swung him like a sling and threw him at the other boys' backs. He smacked sidelong into them and they toppled like bowling pins.

At last Gwen's eerie screaming faded to a stop.

Norma and the old man were in the car and roaring down the hill. The boys groggily rose to their feet and turned angrily to Star and hungrily to the corpse of Marco's kill. Their hunger won out over their lust for revenge. Star turned away, pressing her hand to her mouth as tears streamed down her face. She heard a small sound coming from behind a bush. She investigated.

"Laddie!" she cried in dismay. He was crouching in the bushes, shaking, his eyes wide. "Why didn't you stay in the car?" Star's voice broke. Despair was setting in. Her one consolation had been that Laddie was finally free. Her strength was draining from her, turning to hopelessness and apathy. She sank to her knees, put one hand on Laddie's shoulder and hung her head. The vampires finished gorging themselves and gathered around Laddie and Star. She almost fell asleep as David lifted and carried her back to the cavern.

* * *

Star spied on the funeral of Gilbert Johnson. David almost hadn't let her go, but her condition had deepened considerably, with her bouts of depression and sleepiness becoming more frequent. Even when her powers gave her the strength to match any of the other vampires, their constant mind-games had worn her psyche down. She felt tied to the vampires even when she was not physically tied up in the cave. She still refused to kill, even though she knew it would assuage the pain of the hunger that incapacitated her regularly now.

Norma stood over Gilbert's tombstone and carefully placed a single white rose on it. Star learned that Gilbert was her husband. The old man was a close friend and expert vampire hunter. The trio, now a duo, had been hunting vampires together in Santa Clara for a long time. The old man put his arm around Norma's shoulder, and they shed a tear together for their best friend and brother-in-arms.

Star left. She was tired and felt distinctly uncomfortable being out during the day, even a rainy day like this one.

* * *

Star continued to secretly watch the vampire hunters. She still wanted to escape, but realized she was going to have to be smart about it. David had a stronghold in her mind now. She had to be surreptitious; watch and wait for the right moment. The second attempt at escape would be, one way or another, her last. When the old man's two grandsons moved in with him, Star got an idea. The idea evolved into a plan, and the plan was easily initiated when Star got the older boy's attention with her hypnotic vampiric beauty.

Determination is a funny thing. It is intangible, but has nearly palpable powers.

Star was surviving on pure determination as her altered biological systems went into starvation mode. She somehow continued to resist feeding when everything in her demanded she do so.

She knew that when grandpa's family was in danger, he would be so determined to destroy the vampires that nothing would be able to stop him.

_The End_


End file.
